MTU expands drive shaft business in North American market

Friedrichshafen, Germany / Charleston, SC, USA – MTU Drive Shafts, a DaimlerChrysler company and the world’s largest manufacturer of passenger-car drive shafts, is expanding its business in the North American market with the creation of a new U.S. subsidiary and manufacturing operation, “MTU Drive Shafts LLC,” based in Charleston, South Carolina.

“The US plant will further increase our competitive edge in the growing NAFTA market,” said Dr. Rolf A. Hanssen, President and CEO of MTU and Head of the DaimlerChrysler Off-Highway business unit.

The Charleston plant will produce drive shafts for premium automotive companies in the United States. The U.S. plant will have a capacity for about one million drive shafts annually. This is about 75 percent of the current production figure of the existing drive shafts plant in Frie-drichshafen, Germany.

Rob Tykal, formerly Technical Director of the Off-Highway Division at Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC), was appointed President of MTU Drive Shafts LLC. As he pointed out, the establishment of the U.S. plant is important for North American-based car and truck manufac-turers: “Our customers expect just-in-time delivery and high flexibility. By assembling the drive shafts here in the U.S, we are much better equipped to meet these requirements.”

The Charleston MTU operation is located adjacent to a Freightliner LLC facility, which currently builds American LaFrance fire and emer-gency services vehicles. Freightliner LLC is also a DaimlerChrysler company.

The machinery necessary for the production – assembly and balanc-ing machines, welders and others – will be installed beginning in April 2003, with series production starting in 2004. By 2006, the company plans to employ over 200 workers who will work in three shifts.

“Today, we are market leader for passenger car drive shafts world-wide, and already No. 2 for drive shafts for light trucks in Europe”, said Dr. Rolf A. Hanssen. The drive shaft business of MTU Frie-drichshafen accounts for eleven percent of the company’s overall sales. “Drive shafts are a substantial part of the MTU product portfo-lio. Sales increases result from the DaimlerChrysler car business as well as, increasingly, from business with other manufacturers,” he added.

MTU has a worldwide market share of 26 percent for passenger-car drive shafts. About one quarter of all manufactured cars worldwide which are equipped with rear or all-wheel drive, use drive shafts from Friedrichshafen.

Drive shafts are an essential part of a vehicle’s power train: in vehi-cles with rear-wheel drive, they transmit the power of the engine from the transmission to the rear axle; and in all-wheel drives, from the transmission to the front and rear axles.

Since 1970, MTU Friedrichshafen has produced drive shafts for pas-senger cars and light trucks with rear and all-wheel drive. MTU drive shafts are renowned for their high quality, low weight and very smooth running even at high speeds. Therefore, they are used primarily in the luxury and premium classes. The largest customer is DaimlerChrysler with its Mercedes-Benz brand, of which all passenger cars with rear and all-wheel drive have MTU drive shafts installed: from the C- and E-Class to the S-Class. Also the new Maybach uses drive shafts from MTU. For several years now, the primary sales performer in the com-mercial vehicle range has been drive shafts for the “Sprinter”, world-wide a bestseller in the van segment.

MTU Friedrichshafen, a DaimlerChrysler company, is one of the worldwide leading manufacturers of large diesel engines and complete propulsion systems. With 6200 employees, MTU reaches an annual turnover of over 1.1 bn Euros (2001). The company manufactures die-sel and gas engines for propulsion systems in ships, distributed power plants, heavy vehicles and rail in the power range between 20 and 9,000 kW (30 to 12,250 hp) and drive shafts for cars and light trucks. With twelve subsidiaries on all continents, the company is present worldwide. Together with the off-highway business of Detroit Diesel Corporation, MTU Friedrichshafen forms the DaimlerChrysler busi-ness unit DaimlerChrysler Off-Highway.

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Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]